An epic fight is brewing over what Congress and President Obama should do about the expiring Bush tax cuts, with such substantial economic and political consequences that it could shape the fall elections and fiscal policy for years to come. Democratic leaders, including Mr. Obama, say they are intent on letting the tax cuts for the wealthy expire as scheduled at the end of this year. But they have pledged to continue the lower tax rates for individuals earning less than $200,000 and families earning less than $250,000 — what Democrats call the middle class.
If freedom of religion means anything in the United States, it means that Muslim-Americans have a right to congregate and worship wherever they please -- including places those with vivid memories of 9/11 may find distasteful. But that doesn't mean the people behind a planned mosque blocks away from Ground Zero are acting like good neighbors -- or good citizens.
San Diego's float parties are a case study in the law of unintended consequences. Fed up with litter and drunkenness on its beaches, San Diego's city council in 2007 passed a one-year ban on beach drinking. Voters made the ban permanent a year later. But there was an oversight: The ban defines "beach" as "the sand or land area bordering the water of an ocean or bay." The wording inadvertently created a drinkers' haven in the water.
Wikileaks' decision to transfer tens of thousands of raw classified field reports on the Afghan war to the New York Times and two European news organizations reflects the growing strength and sophistication of the small nonprofit Web site, founded three years ago to fight what it considers excessive secrecy. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange called the release of nearly 92,000 individual reports portraying a sputtering Afghan war effort "the nearest analogue to the Pentagon Papers." He was referring to the secret military documents that helped shift public opinion about the Vietnam War after they became public in 1971.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg sent a message Friday to lazy people—New York City is not the place for you. Mr. Bloomberg asserted that people outside the five boroughs work much slower than their New York City counterparts. The proof, he said during comments on his weekly radio show, is in the sandwich. More precisely, the speed at which food hits the table at New York City eateries versus other places. "Everything comes instantly," said the multibillionaire mayor known for eating out. He singled out his "favorite restaurant," Viand Café, a Greek diner on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
